I know I’m a little late to be wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, but here it goes. . . "HAPPY THANKSGIVING!" Our Thanksgiving was quite weird this year. Jaxson and I took off for Hubbard on Wednesday night, leaving Brad at home still sick. It broke my heart driving away leaving him home alone for Thanksgiving; however, we all thought it was best that Jaxson and I still go to still celebrate with our families and also to limit our exposure to whatever it is that he has (more on that in a bit). So Jaxson and I hung out at my mom and Mike’s that evening and also went and saw my dad and Brenda and their new puppy Casper. Jaxson had a great time playing chase and tug-of-war with him. Jaxson also helped Papa Mike carve the turkey that night. This is when he decided that he really likes turkey. When we were sitting in bed that night, I was reading him a book and he so nicely interrupted me and looked up at me with the cutest look on his face and said, "Mommy. . . I loooove turkey." I just busted out laughing because that is so not what I thought he was going to say, but it was so adorable. On Thursday, we had a great traditional Thanksgiving meal with my mom’s family. That afternoon, Jaxson and I headed to Gowrie to see the Cathcarts where we ate some more. Jaxson stayed overnight with Papa and Nana Cathcart that night so that Brad and I could go shopping on Black Friday; however, this year, it ended up being Tanya and me doing the shopping with Brad going to the doctor instead. Tanya came and picked me up at 6:30, so we aren’t the real earlybird Black Friday shoppers, but early enough. We had a great time and got a lot accomplished. I got all of my Christmas shopping done, from start to finish, except for Brad’s stocking stuffers. I call that a successful shopping day. In the meantime, we found out that Brad doesn’t actually have H1N1, but instead it’s mono. I don’t know which one is worse because if it was H1N1 at least he would have some immunity to it and he would probably be better by now. This mono seems to be continuing on and on and on with no sign of him getting any better yet. He still has fevers off and on throughout the day and he can only be awake for at most three hours at a time and then needing a nap. I know that I’m sick of it, but he is going crazy. So a little clarification is needed about the previous post. Brad did that because he has been bored out of his mind and actually sat down to try and figure out all on his own how to post something on the blog. Good job honey!! It’s only been over three years since we started the blog and you finally posted something! So this year has made us so very thankful for our health and time with our family. We hope that everyone had a happy and blessed Thanksgiving.

Now onto something that I forgot to post about previously. Last weekend was preschool registration at our church. Ever since we started going to Hope, I’ve heard about how fabulous the preschool is. So great in fact, that people line up hours ahead of the registration time to hopefully get their kid in. Registration started at 9:00 am, so I went at 6:00 and was the 7th person in line. I later found out that the first person in line was there at midnight! Crazy! Although, he did have twins and wanted to really make sure that he got both of them in. I’m happy to report that being three hours early paid off and Jaxson will be going to New Horizons Preschool next fall 🙂

With my current illness I missed everyone at Thanksgiving this year. It really put in perspective how much my family’s mean to me, not being able to be there to see everyone and enjoy all the good food. Well after having a fever for over a week I finally went to the doctor on Friday. The doctor just thought it was one of the many viruses out there. My nurse manager thought maybe it was mono. So when I went to the doctor I asked for a mono lab test. The mono lab result came back positive. So on the positive side of things I dont have H1N1 or something worse which is where my head was going (the unknown). Unfortunately with mono there is not much anyone can do. Fluids, a lot of rest, and take Tylenoel for the fevers.

So I’m already finding less and less time to blog like I used to and the new baby isn’t even here yet. It seems to be down to about once a week now if I’m lucky, so I find that it’s just easiest if I combine everything into one post. I’ll start with pottytraining. Jaxson is doing excellent with wearing his big boy underwear. He is pretty much trained for going #1, but about 50% trained for #2. He is also doing a good job when we are out and about, which is what I was worried about. We are also skipping diapers at naptime and bedtime, which he’s been dry so far. We’re keeping our fingers crossed. Now onto H1N1. . . Brad is home this week with a fever, chills, headache, and bodyaches. Since we are assuming that he has H1N1, I now have to take Tamiflu to protect me and the baby. Yes, all three of us did get the vaccine; however, I really believe that Brad’s case is so mild because he did get the shot. It’s kind of like the flu shot. . . you can still get the flu after getting the flu shot, but chances are, it will be a milder case of it. I was very worried about H1N1 getting into our house with me being pregnant. When I asked my midwife what her opinion/recommendation was regarding the vaccine, she told me about the latest study that was out just on pregnant women and the virus. The study looked at 100 women with the virus. The end result was that 36 out of the 100 died from the virus. Uh hello, that’s more than 1/3 of the pregnant population. That is what convinced me to get the vaccine. Other than trying to avoid getting H1N1, the pregnancy is going OK. I feel pretty good most of the time, but then I sit down on the floor to play with Jaxson and I find it very hard to get up and when I do get up I am VERY sore. I’m now 33 weeks along, with six weeks to go. WOW, can’t believe it! It’s still hard to believe that we are going to have an infant in the house again. I think Jaxson is going to do great with him, but I’m worried about how I’m going to handle both boys and try to give Jaxson the attention that he needs/deserves. I’m sure we’ll figure it out along the way. Now onto haircuts. I’m always on the lookout for ways that I can save money. I was taking Jaxson to get his haircut about every six weeks, which would cost me around $12 each time. Now I know that’s not much; however, when I came across a very nice home haircutting set at Costco for $25, I couldn’t pass it up. Tonight was the first time I broke out the clippers and I have to say that I’m pretty impressed with myself. Now I will say that I won’t be giving up my day job as a stay at home mom or nurse, but I will be saving us a little more money every few weeks 🙂

I can say that I have officially hit the point in my pregnancy that I am TIRED. It also doesn’t help that Jaxson is no longer doing naps (most days), but instead doing an hour of quiet time, which is for my mental state rather than for him. However, he is going to bed at 7:30, which is very nice, but it makes for long afternoons. I have also hit the point where sleeping is not very comfortable anymore. I am limited to two positions, the left side or the right side, which stinks because I usually sleep on my back. With my pregnancy with Jaxson, I never had a hard time sleeping. I was sleeping through the night without waking up until the very last day, but like my midwife keeps telling me, “Remember Stephanie, things are always different with a second pregnancy.” Boy is she right. Anyways, on to some more fun stuff that’s been going on here very recently. Lastnight, we went to Pump It Up for Rebecca Hinderaker’s 4th birthday party. Becca is the daughter of my high school friends Clint and Rachel Hinderaker. We had such a great time. It is a large place with a lot of huge blow up bounce houses/slides/games. Not only did the kiddos have fun, but so did the adults. I had a bit of jealousy when Brad was able to do all of the fun stuff with Jaxson and go through the obstacle course with him. It was also fun to see Jaxson and Becca interact with each other; they are so cute together. Today, we had the Barrons and the Learys over to watch the Iowa game. Not quite the outcome that we wanted, but the end score was much better than I thought it would be. They played much better than I thought they would, which gives me hope for their last game against Minnesota. Some more exciting news is that we are really working hard on the potty training this weekend. Jaxson was in big boy underwear all day and did a GREAT job with telling us when he had to go potty. He even went on his own one time and told us afterwards. So I’m keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that he continues to do so well. Tomorrow it’s off to church and more family time 🙂

Today, Jaxson and I headed to Backyard Adventures for his friend, Morgen’s, 4th birthday party. A lot of his friends were there so they had a great time playing, eating, and watching Morgen open her presents.

The boys at Backyard Adventures having no fun at all 🙂

The birthday girl, Morgen, getting ready to blow out her candles.

Here’s Jaxson’s annual picture in the pumpkin.

2008

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Jaxson, Grandma Pam, and I went downtown to the last Farmer’s Market of the season on Saturday despite it being quite cold. What can I say, the pregnant lady had to stock up on her favorite bread before the end of the season. Jaxson had a good time being pulled around in the wagon and riding the train, but soon informed me that he was cold and we headed home.